Cade 1200 Mixed Reef with cuttlefish someday build

Toadpapa

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First a little background. My son is the one driving this project, when he was around 7 years old he found a love of cuttlefish, he is now 18. Recently found a bit of his art from age 7 where you can see his love for cuttlefish.
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Last year we were lucky that we got to go to the Monterey Bay aquarium and get a behinds the scene tour of the cuttlefish breeding program. Met a lot of great people who gave us email addresses and knowledge and my son came home saying Poppa I would like to try to raise cuttlefish now. So we have no background in fish, I used to raise poison dart frogs so fish are totally out of my wheel house so we both started learning together.

First step build a salt water mixing station. Never done any sort of plumbing before, were intimidated as heck to try it but thanks to @SuncrestReef build he listed out all the parts he used and really made idiot proof.

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Next we started researching the different options of aquariums. We got a NIB nano and quickly set that up and started learning the ins and outs of water chemistry and cycling and all that. We thought we were going to go red sea 425 but started looking around a bit more. Had a look at the neptoniam and the waterbox but then we saw a few videos on the cade. Was scary to buy something online and something we didnt see in person but we said what the heck and bought one from @AlgaeBarn, which I must say was easy peasy and were great to work with. Shipping was quick, one week and we got the cade this morning. It comes packaged like a tank both stand and tank and I didnt have any fear that anything was damaged in shipping.
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And wow are these things heavy. Getting them into the house was a family effort and anything bigger we couldn't have done it. Next post will be all the equipment, which is arriving in the next week. The only thing we haven't picked out yet are the lights we are going to use. Talk about analysis paralysis. In any case we are excited to be undertaking this journey together.
 

codymichae1

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Nice!!!! I am excited to see what you do with it, and kudos on your salt mixing station. Building a house right now, so I’ll have to lookup the plans you used and copy when our house is finished.

Keep us updated!!
 
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Toadpapa

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Got the plumbing done till all the gear comes and we have to change a few things. Got a uv we have to figure out where to put it, more research hah. Also go a light installed underneath so when you open the door it turns on.

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Still waiting on things to arrive. Should get a boatload of things this week so we can get some water in. However I am in the PNW and the fires/wind is causing havoc with deliveries and such. There are 6 active fires around 5 miles rom me so we are hoping we dont have to evacuate.

Our power went out last night and we have a red sea nano that we were learning the hobby that has been going for about 2 months with a couple clown fish and corals. We spent the night stirring the water and hoping everything would live the night. This morning everything still looks ok but this just drove home the point that I need a generator (it was ordered yesterday). We are pretty rural so its something that has been on the list to get.
 
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Good news we didn't have to evacuate due to fires and the power is back on. Ups was able to make it to our house today to deliver a few more goodies. Slowly getting everything together.

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Had a lot of researching to do so progress has been slow. Finally decided on the lights. Aquatic life dimmable with two kessil a360x. The kessils should be here next week so we can finish the lights up. I should note the tank is pulled out from against the wall so the lights might look off.

Connor also has been studying negative space aquascape so he is busy chipping away and designing. Not in that much of a hurry since the nano is up and running but we are trying not to get bogged down in research also.

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Toadpapa

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I guess this is what art looks like. Should make for an awesome scape when he is done. We should also finish up the plumbing today. Just need another run the the hardware store.

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Coming along nicely. Just ordered my 1200 today.
Thanks. Being new to all this one thing we weren’t prepared for is the metric pvc compared to regular pvc. It was hard to get out head around how to convert so we could finish plumbing the stuff we needed. Also found the 25 watt UV fit on the floor almost perfectly. But yeah just e aware of the plumbing differences cause we had no idea heh.
 
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Coming along nicely. Just ordered my 1200 today.
We really love the Cade so far though. Built like a dang tank. Are you in the states and order through algaebarn?
We should wrap up lights tonight and Connor is still working on the aquascape. Hazards of being a perfectionist. Hopefully we will get water in it this weekend! Also need to install the dos for the automatic water changes.

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I'm in NC and ordered through Algae Barn. Was hoping my local LFS could get a dealership so I could support the little guy. It was taking to long so I went ahead and ordered. Glad I did because now their website is showing backordered.

I've had my rock cooking for 3 weeks and some bioplates in my other tank for a few months.
 
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I'm in NC and ordered through Algae Barn. Was hoping my local LFS could get a dealership so I could support the little guy. It was taking to long so I went ahead and ordered. Glad I did because now their website is showing backordered.

I've had my rock cooking for 3 weeks and some bioplates in my other tank for a few months.

I was the exact same, wanted my local shop to be a dealer and they did sign up for it but I couldnt wait any longer and when Algaebarn said they could ship mine in a week I was all over it. It was a great delivery but man that crate is a pain to break down and get rid of heh. Least is was safe and sound and I appreciate the great packing job.
 
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Had to wait for a few orders but we are dangerously close to putting water in. Everything is plumbed and cables and everything are nice and neat. One gotcha is the light has to come out from the wall about 4 inches. So tomorrownwill paint a couple 4x4's and attaching them to the studs and attaching the lights to them. One step forward and one back hah

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Toadpapa

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Water is in. Lesson learned check the over flow connections first by putting a little water in there first as it will alleviate the panic the sets in when a connection leaks. We won't do that again hah.

Connor has plans on covering the gray cement on his rock structure up not sure how but we will see. He might not even care. Next the long wait for cycling and him learning how to program the Apex stuff.

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